With the arrest of seven persons, including a Nigerian national and two Delhi-based property dealers with heroin and drug money on Saturday, the district rural police are eyeing to bust a drug syndicate operating in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and the national capital.

With the arrest of seven persons, including a Nigerian national and two Delhi-based property dealers with heroin and drug money on Saturday, the district rural police are eyeing to bust a drug syndicate operating in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and the national capital.

The syndicate reportedly involves high-profile people, including some foreign nationals, operating in the region. Senior police officials claimed that as the Border Security Force (BSF) has increased deployment and vigil on the international border in Punjab, the smuggling of contrabands has come down drastically and drug peddlers are trying to use Jammu and Kashmir as a new route for smuggling.

Two police teams are already camping in J&K and Delhi to arrest more persons involved in the syndicate, after getting inputs during the interrogation of Eze, the arrested Nigerian national, and others.

On Tuesday, the accused were sent to judicial custody after they were produced in a local court. The sources said that Eze has revealed many names of persons belonging to his country Nigeria and they will also be held soon.

“We have also informed the Nigerian High Commission in New Delhi about Eze’s arrest. The syndicate so well-oiled that forces do not enter the areas where it operates from,” a police official said.He said it targeted various bars in Delhi and Haryana for selling contraband on high rates.

In 2014, five persons from Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh were arrested for being part of an inter-state drug peddling gang by rural police and recovered a huge cache of contraband from them.

On Saturday (May 16), the police in an operation carried out by three teams of the special branch recovered 5 kilogram heroin, `10.40 lakh drug money and impounded three cars from the accused. The police claimed that the accused brought the contraband from Jammu and Kashmir and used to send it for rave parties in New Delhi, Haryana and other states.

The contraband was worth `25 crore while the drug money included 7,000 US dollars.

The accused are as Eze, who hails from Lagos in Nigeria, Rakesh Chander Gogna and Som Nath of Mahavir Enclave in New Delhi, Ajit Singh of Jaitowali in Jalandhar, Mohammad Rasheed of Amargarh in Sangrur, Dharwinder Singh and Gurjeet Singh of Khusropur in Kapurthala district.